How to clean candle wax warmer without mess? This question is on the mind of many people who have a wax warmer in the house or in the office. Indeed, removing wax can be troublesome, especially when it is hot or stone-hard. Here are some methods of cleaning a candle warmer fast, without mess and without skin burns.
Method 1. Cotton ball
It’s always better to remove the wax when it is still liquid. However, when it is liquid, it is also hot. That’s why, before you proceed with the removal, let the wax cool down for a couple of minutes. Once it has gotten to a temperature that excludes skin burns, take a cotton ball and place it on the wax to soak it up. Slightly press upon the cotton ball to improve the absorption, and let it sit for a few minutes. Then, remove the ball and wipe down the candle dish to remove wax leftovers.
As an alternative to cotton ball comes paper towel. With paper towel, you are better off to use blotting motions to absorb the wax. Remove the towel saturated with wax, then grab a new one to wipe the candle dish to sparkling condition.
Method 2. Scraper
Dealing with solid wax is much more difficult, as there is no option of absorbing it in no time. The best solution to avoid much elbow grease is to slightly melt the wax by turning the warmer on for a moment. As the wax gets tacky, you have to make it into one piece and remove it from the candle. Owlchemy suggests to use a scraper for this, as it does a great job of collecting the wax together and prevents you from using your own fingers to scrape the tacky substance off.
Well, you can use fingers as last resort. They just get messy and can get burnt by wax in case your skin is sensitive. So, if a scraping tool is on hand, never hesitate to use it. Once you have removed most of the wax with the scraper, there will have been some wax crumbs left on the walls and bottom of the dish. Use a paper towel to remove them and make your candle as impeccable and shiny as new. If some leftovers stay stuck to the dish, use something sharp, like a knife, to scrape them off. Be gentle to avoid scratching the dish.
Method 3. Freezing
To have more options to choose from when dealing with wax removal, you can learn how to clean candle wax warmer using the freezing method. Use this method only if your warmer has a detachable dish. First of all, let the wax fully cool down. Once it has turned solid, remove the dish and place it into the refrigerator for half an hour. Then, remove the dish from the freezing chamber, turn it upside down over the trash can, and slightly beat it to loosen the wax. If the wax refuses to release, send it to refrigerator for another half an hour.
If you don’t have time for another freezing session, Country Charm Candle Company recommends to grab a knife and run it across the edges of the dish to release the wax. Forcing the knife into the rock-hard wax can make the knife slide. That’s why, make sure you take a firm grip of it and control your each hand movement while attempting to loosen the wax. Once released, frozen wax leaves no crumbs and leftovers on the candle dish. So, you skip the step of wiping down the dish with a paper towel, which is necessary only for the methods where the wax is in liquid or half-liquid state.
How often to clean a wax melt warmer?
You can clean your candle warmer as often as you want, but you should keep in mind that the longer you don’t clean it, the higher chance of two or more scents to mix. The point is that every time you change the wax, crumbs of the previous wax remain on the dish. If you don’t remove them before adding the new wax, the fragrances of the two waxes can blend, creating a strange smell you don’t want to have in your house or office.
To prevent this from happening, you are best off to clean the warmer every time you change the wax. After all, this is not a tedious and time-consuming task. You spend just a few minutes on absorbing the wax, scraping the stubborn leftovers and wiping the candle clean.
Why choose a candle wax warmer?
1. Fire safe
Since a wax warmer doesn’t use a flame to melt the wax, you eliminate the risk of a house fire. You can even stay in another room or go out without fearing that something near the candle can catch fire. Wax warmers turn off automatically as soon as the wax gets completely melted.
2. Melts all the wax
Unlike flame-lit candles whose wick burns out prematurely, warmers melt all the wax in the candle. It means you save money by consuming the whole quantity of wax in the candle before adding a new one.
3. More pleasant scent
Those at HomeSteady claim that scents emitted by wax warmers are better than the ones generated by ordinary candles. Candles lit by a flame generate smoke that mixes with the wax fragrance, making it less accentuated and pleasant. Moreover, some warmers have fans integrated in their structure that contribute to a wider distribution of the scent throughout the room.
Closing thoughts
The content above is meant to show you how to clean candle wax warmer with little to no effort. To summarize, the best time to remove the wax is when it’s liquid, as it allows to be quickly absorbed. If it is already solid, you have two ways. First one, you can slightly warm the wax up to make it softer, then remove it with a scraper. Also, you can freeze the wax until it releases from the dish.
